My New Journal!

I am really excited about this new journal I have. Thank you Julie Pursewell for the inspiration. I am the first to admit that I am not creative, but I will steal someone’s great idea when I see one (with due credit, of course). I had been struggling with a way to keep track of the different types of notes I like to keep: verses that speak to me, prayer requests, praises, sermon notes, notes from books I have been reading, etc. I have tried various things and what I ended up with were notes scattered all over the place. When I wanted to find something, I often could find lots of other notes, just not the ones I needed! Not any more though. I laugh at myself that I couldn’t come up with this because now it seems so simple. I could create one. So off to Office Depot I went after our PC wives meeting with Betsy and Julie. I purchased a small binder, some loose paper, small pocket folders to act as dividers and in a very short time, I had my new all-in-one journal. I am so excited. So here is the result:

The Word of God is Active...

We are getting to the point with our older girls of transitioning more to discipling them more than disciplining them. This has been difficult to navigate through because we are still learning what this will look like. But this week I felt in a very tangible way the truth of Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit,...”

Hope has always been a very strong–willed child and when disciplining her, and it often takes a lot for her will to submit to our authority. This can often be a drawn out process. This past week, I was faced with another challenge in her disobedience and attitude. She was sent to her room until I was able to talk to her. This was mostly so she could think about things and also for me to pray and think through how I was going to approach her. After a while, I went up to her room and started with why I sent her to her room. Her response was she didn’t mind being in her room. So I told her that if that if being in her room didn’t help her think, she would need to be made a little more uncomfortable.

So I sent her to stand in the corner so she could think about things. Again, I needed to think and pray how to approach her (and work through my anger at this point too.) I then sent her back to her room so we could talk. She was still pretty cavalier and her attitude was not sweet. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to say, but I did grab my Bible and brought it in with me.

When I opened my Bible, I saw this:

The Three Trees-It has been a great tool used by our church and many SG churches to make gospel connections with our behaviors and the roots of those behaviors in our hearts. But it doesn’t leave it at that. It takes us to the cross and what Christ did for our sins on that tree. I thought that would be a good thing to help me talk through things with Hope. And as I did, something amazing happened. She started sobbing as we talked through the three trees and what Christ did for us. Her will was submitting to the Lord and her attitude was changed.This had a profound impact on me. Spending 5 minutes helping Hope apply the gospel to her life did more to change her behavior than the half hour she spent having consequences for her actions. I saw the word of God cutting her to her heart and that verse in Hebrews came alive in that instant. The word of God is powerful to change our lives, but also powerful to change the lives of our children. We labor in sewing into their lives at these young ages often without seeing much reaping. But when we do catch a glimpse of the reaping, it is sweetness to the soul.

P.S. Excuse the crazy font stuff going on. Not sure why it was doing this.

Gratefulness

The key to being grateful is often just a shift in our perspective. Oh how I need to remember this.